Andy Murray is through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the fourth year in a row after a swift win against France's Jeremy Chardy. The Briton, 25, kept up his record of not having dropped a set this year with a 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory in one hour and 51 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. Murray, the third seed, will face the winner of the night session match between Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last four. And he will expect a far more serious examination than anything he has experienced so far at Melbourne Park. Chardy, ranked 36th, was appearing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final compared to Murray's 15th, and had won their previous encounter in Cincinnati last year. The 25-year-old Frenchman also caused the biggest surprise in the men's draw in Melbourne when he beat sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro in round three. But Murray led their personal duel 4-1 overall and was well aware that Chardy favoured his huge forehand - he would spend much of the match skipping sideways around his backhand to wind up on that side. It was the US Open champion who came out firing, breaking straight away when Chardy dumped a volley into the net and quickly running through the first four games. After such a poor start, and with the set seemingly gone, Chardy began to swing freely and put some pressure on the Briton. A break to love helped him cut the deficit to 4-3, and Murray was in some trouble serving at 30-30 but came through with a service winner and a second-serve ace down the middle. The Scot converted his third set point after 44 minutes and made his move early once again the second, which ran a similar course to the opener. A backhand lob and a deep return helped him break in game three and a 4-1 lead looked to be enough. Chardy again threatened a comeback but, facing two break points in game six, Murray hit a fizzing cross-court winner before some elastic defence helped him save the second. The Briton was in the mood now, showing the form of a Grand Slam contender for the first time in the tournament. Murray stretched his run of unanswered games to eight and, despite prolonging matters by dropping serve with victory in sight, his afternoon's work leaves him as fresh as he could wish for Friday's semi-final.

As he usually does during the grand slams, Andy Murray has been writing a newspaper column between matches. Here, it is for The Australian and it is a nice way of getting a little bit more of his character out there to audiences that might not otherwise know much about him or what kind of person he is, at least away from the court.The columns are generally quite light-hearted and fun – in France his column in L’Equipe was called “Dandy Andy” and they are obviously a good PR move, not least because Murray gives his time for free, rather than trying to fleece a few extra quid out of the struggling newspaper business.After his fourth-round win over Gilles Simon, he answered a series of questions sent in by readers of The Australian, one of which focused on one of his other loves, football. As most people know, Murray had to choose between football and tennis when he was young and had he chosen football, he could have played for Rangers. Thankfully for Britain, he chose tennis but he still loves football and enjoyed answering a question about which four top-20 players would he pick to make up the perfect 5-a-side team, alongside himself.While Novak Djokovic got an honourable mention, Murray’s choices were: “Rafa (Nadal) in the midfield, Jo-Wilfried (Tsonga) up front, Kei Nishikori flying down the right wing, David Ferrer getting up and down the pitch and Serena as the ultimate substitute. That’d be my five-a-side dream football team!”Having a woman player as a sub was part of the criteria and Murray had no hesitation in saying: “It was a pretty simple answer. Serena. She is an awesome athlete and physically the strongest player.”

Andy Murray will play with Tim Henman for the first time in June – in a doubles match on the last day of Queen's – to raise money for cancer research.They are teaming up after a request from the doubles specialist Ross Hutchins, who is responding well to treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He was ranked third in the UK and 28th in the world in doubles when told at the start of the year that he had blood cancer."Ever since I was diagnosed and began treatment at the Royal Marsden hospital," Hutchins said, "I have wanted to do something to raise money for them to thank them for their kindness."It is an unbelievable place that helps thousands of people in situations similar to mine. I'd had the idea of running a tennis event and was approached by Chris Kermode, [the tournament director of the Aegon Championships at Queen's] and the team at the LTA, who suggested doing something after the final. I thought it was a great idea."I then asked Andy, and straight away he said he was up for it, that he would love to play for the charity. Now Tim has said he will play, too, which is fantastic. It's going to be a really great day and for a charity that helps a lot of people and obviously one that means a lot to me."Murray, who went out in the first round at Queen's last year, will be keen to regain his touch on grass at the tournament, which precedes Wimbledon.The all-star doubles match – against opponents yet to be announced – will take place on finals day, 16 June."As soon as Ross started talking about the idea, I knew I wanted to get involved," Murray said. "We want to make it a day to remember, so we are talking to a few celebrities, who love their tennis, about coming down and getting involved on the day. I'm looking forward to helping raise as much money and awareness as possible so the charity can continue the amazing work it does, which I've heard all about through Ross."Henman added: "This is a great idea and a great cause and I'm happy to have been asked to take part. It will be fun to go out on the centre court at the Queen's Club again and for the first time with Andy."Most importantly it's an opportunity to raise money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity which supports the hospital that is treating Ross and makes such a difference to so many people. I'm sure everyone involved in tennis and on the day will get behind it to raise as much money as possible."